Red Dwarf lands on Dave in 2012

Red Dwarf was a brilliant Sci Fi comedy that ran on BBC Two from 1988-1993 and then 1998-9. The series was then ressurrected for a three-part special in 2009 by Dave. Long term readers will know how much I love this show, seeing as I've reviewed every episode.
     Before now any news of any more Dwarf has been confined to rumour and speculation. A few days ago, main actor Craig Charles revealed to Real Radio that, "…they’ve commissioned another series of Red Dwarf, We’re gonna film at the end of November December and January." This is the first solid evidence we have that there will be new Dwarf, and adding to that, "The plan at the moment, and this could change,  is that we record the new series in front of an audience" for the first time since 1998.
     I'll certainly be watching in.... a year's time, and hopefully Audenshaw Reviews will still be around to review it.

Thanks.

PS: I'd like to thank Obsessed with Film for breaking this news and indirectly bringing it to my attention.

Review: Lost 4.3: The Economist

Note: If you want to understand these reviews, I'd direct you to Lostpedia's Season Four portal. All of the images in my Lost reviews have been taken from Lostpedia, and the plot there goes into greater detail.

Sayid sets off in the Helicopter.

Settling into the usual Lost routine, this episode focused on Sayid, the series' Iraqi badass. Sayid's episodes always have similar themes of love and honour, and someone usually ends up dead at the end. The Economist didn't shy away from this generalisation and instead embraced them, setting up an interesting if predictable flashforward storyline as well as advancing a few trivial character movements around the island.
     Sayid intends to go to the Freighter in Frank's helicopter, and so organises a trade-off - if he can get Charlotte back from Locke's camp, then they'll take him to the freighter. Sayid sets off with Kate and Miles, the latter of which is also going to try and find Ben, as per the freighter's mission. When they get there, Hurley tips off Locke and they are captured, leaving Sayid trapped with Ben, Kate with Sawyer and Miles on his own. Locke and Sayid make their own deal, as the ex-Republican Guard member has his suspicions about the freighter and trades Miles for Charlotte. At the end of the episode, Sayid goes off in the Helicopter, with Frank, Desmond and Naomi's corpse.
     Another interesting (if brief) subplot was Daniel's attempts to check the distance between freighter and island, revealing that there was half-an-hour's worth time difference between the two. It was a fun piece of Sci-Fi that really spices the show up for me, and it's the start of this series' more scientific tendencies.

Elsa and Sayid.

     The flashforward timeline saw Sayid as a hired assassin for Ben, killing off businessmen. One day, on a mission, he tries to infiltrate an "Economist" through their assistant, Elsa, who Sayid goes ahead and bonks. Then, he is surprised when she shoots him in the shoulder, and runs back to Ben crying. You could tell that both parties had some Genre Savvy going on, and I was surprised when the otherwise expert Sayid didn't notice. It didn't connect with anything in the present, and the motivations behind Sayid helping Ben aren't explained until 4.9.
     The themes of honour and love etc. would certainly be a lot more potent if they weren't such well-worn fascets of Sayid's entire character. It feels a little stale, something that could have been sorted out in five minutes but was stretched queasily over three-quarters of an hour. Maybe it's just my British-grown appetite for tension and fast pacing that makes me a little irritated by the slow, drawn out recesses of US shows, but Frank could have said "Ok, hop in," and the episode would acheive the same amount.

Ben "consoles" Sayid.

     Regardless of that spectre hanging over it, the episode does have some positives, however trivial they may be. I loved the fun Sci-Fi goings on with Faraday and his experiment, which itself called upon greats like Back To The Future. It's a sign of good things to come. Unfortunately, at the moment, the series is trotting along at too slow a pace for me. I want something to happen, goddamnit. That, and the episode had nothing new or expressive to say or do, and was simply shifting people around.

Thanks.

Review: Misfits 1.3

Alisha gets ready to use her power for a night on the town.

God, is it the middle of the series already? Episode Three is quite mixed, a dull blade in an otherwise sharp series. It isn't that the plot, which is spread out over Alisha, Kelly and Simon, is particularly bad in any way; the problem really belongs in the episode's lack of focus or punch. Regardless, this week's episode managed to advance a lot of plotlines that were stilted by last week's Nathan smorgesboard.
     This episode's main labour was to give some much needed development to Alisha. At this point in the series the character comes across as (and, quite frankly, is) a shallow whore, and that doesn't make a sympathetic character. What results is quite an interesting interpretation of her situation, watching her first exploit her powers in an nightclub and then watching the negative aspects as she is unable to have a meaningful physical relationship with Curtis. My only bug here is that the character doesn't change that much - she's still immature and sex-obsessed, except this time she has to find other means of doing the deed.
     Much more interesting, if absurd, tales were to be found elsewhere. Simon's moments throughout the episode were scattered and subtle because of it, and Iwan Rheon's acting is what makes it so real. Just the ten second shot of Simon sitting alone and invisible in the changing rooms has evoked even philosophical thought from some reviewers. The episode also revealed that "shygirl" is their probation worker Sally, who was Tony's fiance. The other strand saw Kelly affected by previous assault victim Jodie, whose alopecia led her to develop the ability to make other people temporarily bald. Despite the mildly comical element, it felt good for her character, which gets stereotyped elsewhere.

Balded Kelly (left) and Jodie (right) have a heart-to-heart.

      The group-plot was a very loose and swiftly managed dilemma where Simon, upon wandering to the Underpass, finds that construction workers are busy digging up the ground where the two bodies from the centre are buried. After some time-travel solved tension, the group bury the bodies in concrete. More or less sorted, then.
     Excepting the "shygirl" element and the permanent burying of the bodies, the episode didn't hold much actual weight. Howard Overman has often been about Character over Plot, and that is nowhere more obvious than here. It's always been a major benefit of British Brevity that we're able to cram a lot more plot and drama into a shorter series, avoiding the long, drawn-out messes that can occur with some US shows (e.g. Heroes Series 2 and 4). It feels a waste, then, that the plot here was so subtley done it was rendered intangible.
          If 1.3 had some cohesive narrative, something to definitely strive toward, then it might just manage to be one of the more compelling episodes so far. But it just doesn't, instead presenting itself as a fruit-salad of plot scraps left over from the premise. Not a good sign. But the next episode makes up for it, surely? Join me next week and we'll find out.

Thanks.

Just Another Lonely Sunday

Back in September, when I created the Super Sundays concept it was to make sure I had something interesting to review each week. TV was slow and I didn't have much to work with. It's the new year, and times have changed, so from hereon in I am discontinuing Super Sundays until further notice. This will leave Sunday as a free-for-all, which this month I will be filling with Life On Mars.

Thanks.

Josh: No Ordinary Family: Episode Three (review)

Today, I have decided to organise the individual plots for each of the four main characters into sections so it's easier to read. So, here is my review of 'No Ordinary Family' episode three - No Ordinary Ring(each episode title starting with 'No Ordinary' by the way).

Jim: Jim is still practicing his super-human skills with George just in case he is needed for a crime, but for now he jumps his way to be on time to the tuxedo shop for a new suit for a wedding the Powells are attending. He misses the wedding but turns up at the reception where the procession are robbed of their prized possessions by an armed gang. They also take Stephanie's ring, so then Jim and George find out all weddings in the area are being targeted by the gang so they go to a wedding where Jim fails to capture Steph's ring. But second time around, after he throws one of the gang off the roof onto a police car, George gets hold of Steph's ring which was found on the arrested man. But, the offender isn't proven guilty of robbery so gets off. Meanwhile, Jim organises a moonlight dinner with Steph on top of an expensive restaurant where he returns her ring.

Stephanie: Steph, is closer to being able to get her plant project going but Doctor King asks her to take part in a physical test. So, naturally Steph is worried about her blood test as her blood is now full of weird DNA so Katie offers her blood up to the nurse. But then Steph reminds her that both their blood was taken when they took the job at Global Tech, so their blood won't match and both could end up fired. So, Steph uses her powers to break in Global Tech at night with another employee's card, and swaps Katie's blood with an old sample of hers. She thinks she's got away with it but Dr King has noticed the break-in, checked the CCTV and seen a strange blur near the testubes - STEPH!

Daphne - Daphne's childhood friend who she hasn't talken to for years, asks if she can come round to the Powells as they haven't done so in ages, when in fact when Daphne reads her mind, she doesn't want to be alone. So, when her friend comes round Daphne reads her mind again and discovers that her parents are splitting up, but when she asks her friend about it she thinks Daphne is weird so runs off. Daphne then complains to her parents that she needs to talk to someone about her abilities and her friend is the one, and as she tries to explain to her friend she gives in to her parents' pleas and lies to her friend. Meanwhile in her life Daphne is suspicous of Jim's vigilante actions and discovers he is fighting crime.

JJ: JJ is still being accused of cheating at school as well as being blackmailed by Daphne as she is keeping his secret about his powers. He is doing her homework and in return, she does him a favour by reading the mind of a girl he likes. But the girl thinks he's a tool but Daphne lies and says she only dates Jewish boys. So, JJ uses his genius brain to quickly learn Hebrew and he pretends to do religious things when the girl comes over to study. He freaks her out when he reveals he's trying to be Jewish, she's confused so leaves, leaving JJ to have a go at his older sister for lying to him.

Opinion: Congratulations to ABC for creating yet another great episode of this hit drama, because it was just as good as the first two. Of course I was disapointed that they skated over the previous murder of Yvonne with only a brief mention from Jim. Also, I was slightly annoyed that they didn't include the story arc about Dr King and the Watcher but nevertheless the main plot was strong and interesting. The comic inclusion of Jim trying to dance was pretty funny and I liked the slow-mo break in from Steph. Also, I like how the show dealt with Daphne's storyline about lying and I thought JJ's storyline was a bit cheesy but still of good proportions. I'm looking forward to next week's episode and I hope you are for this review!
Thanks, Josh.

Josh: No Ordinary Family: Episode 1&2 (recap)

"You can't fly but you can jump." George.
Plot: 'No Ordinary Family' is an American television series from the company - ABC, which is a sci-fi, comedy drama which began airing last year in September over in the USA. But, on British channel; Watch (part of the BBC), it began last week with a double-bill.

Episode One sees the Powell Family, who are dysfunctional family living in fictional Pacific Bay, California. Father and police sketch artist; Jim (Michael Chilkis) decide to take the family on a holiday to South America as they do not talk much to each other anymore and he feels left out. But, all goes wrong when their plane crashes into a river in Brazil, which seems to give them supernatural powers. Jim is first when he saves his colleague Detective Yvonne Cho (Christina Chang) from a gunman in the office, by catching one of the bullets. So along with his friend and comic book fan; George St. Cloud (Romany Malco) he develops his new abilities by trying to fight crime and discovers he can jump miles at time and is super-strong. He does this and is able to successfully draw perfect images of the offenders for his superiors.

Meanwhile, his wife; Stephanie (Julie Benz), discovers she can run incredibly fast, can heal quickly and has a really fast metabolism which helps her keep slim. So, with her friend and lab-assistant (Katie Andrews -Autumn Reeser) at her company; Global Tech, she uses her powers to her own advantages. This includes getting a sample of the water in the river that her family were subjected to in Brazil but she finds nothing in it. But at the same time she is in the middle of a project about an amazing plant which intrigues her boss. But her boss; Doctor Dayton King (Stephen Collins) is more or less the bad guy, who employs 'The Watcher' (another 'super'(Josh Stewart) to keep an eye on other supernatural humans, which leads up to the murder of Yvonne in episode two.

And then we go back to Jim and Yvonne's children; JJ (Jimmy Bennett) and Daphne (Kay Panabaker) who also have powers, but JJ keeps his secret as the powers he owns make his parents proud. You see JJ, has gained a 'super-brain' and is now highly intelligent unlike his previous self which was rather 'dumb'. But this causes his disbelieving teachers to doubt him and accuse of him of cheating, which makes Jim upset. On the other hand we have Daphne, a rebellious teenager who is dating the bad boy of her school, who is now telepathic. This new power is hard for her to handle at first but then she controls and is able suss out her boyfriend is cheating on her with her best friend.

Opinion: An exciting and addictive double-bill of this US drama has intrigued me to review it because I think that it is so good. In comparison to other US super-hero shows like Heroes and Smallville, which I never watched as I think them not good, this is a feel good family show. It has all the basic elements of a normal superhero themed programme and all the original abilities you get with it but this show has a nice twist to it. The show has light-hearted humour, strong fantasy action and an interesting adult take on both the parents and children's lives. It also has a good focus on topics such as teenage sex, dyslexia and relationship problems. If people reading this haven't already tuned in then do, you haven't missed much important plot because I've summarised all here. Tune in tonight at 8pm on Watch, I urge you, this is a great show that I'll be reviewing here every Wednesday starting tomorrow.
Thanks, Josh.

Review: GHTTB:LoM 2.1 and 2.2

Life On Mars, Series Two, Episode One

"Is this ringing any bells?"
Sam Tyler

Life On Mars returns with an interesting episode that throws us in at the deep end, examining what happens when the ideologies of Hunt and Tyler switch places. It also confronts a question no dout screamed at the television set several times during Series One: why doesn't Sam use his hindsight to catch criminals before they act? On the whole, it's also a lot more fortified and tangible than previously.
     Under the glare of the public eye, Gene and Sam investigate the murder/mugging of a man on a bus. Evidence leads them to casino-owner Tony Crane (Hustle's Marc Warren) whom Sam knows as a crime-lord murderer that Sam put away in the 90s, and whom he believes is torturing him by his bedside in 2006. While Gene is acting By-the-Book for the press, Sam is desperately driven by his conscience to try and find/manufature evidence that will get Crane sent down.
    It's not like it hasn't been done before, but the hindsight-induced characterisation flip between Sam and Gene still makes interesting television. Simm's acting is exemplary here; you can see his sheer desperation and also perhaps his loneliness. This is one of the first episodes, as far as I've seen so far in this marathon, that uses a lot of Chekov's guns to achieve its aims, e.g. Lunatics given no fair trial; Sam's invention, several decades early, of the "stinger" for stopping cars. It also kept very strong ties to the present day, a dynamic that I like. Often Mars feels slightly polarised between its Crime and Sci-Fi genres, and it's in episodes like this one that the two blend perfectly. There are also, finally, hints that Sam may be able to return to the future. A great start to the series.
 

Life On Mars, Series Two, Episode Two
"You don't have to play the clown. You're better than that."

After last week's straightforward tale, Episode Two presents us with a newfound complexity and potency. It also does some more to adress Police Corruption (at least before that topic becomes stale, which it will.) It also, unfortunately, begins to give credence to the Everyone Is Jesus In Purgatory ideas in the Ashes To Ashes finale. Shouldn't bother about that now though. On to the plot.
    Our main plot concerned the capture of "Dicky Fingers," a police witness stolen from under Sam's nose. Under the advice of honoured Superintendant Harry Woolf, Gene goes after gangster Arnold Malone, who tips them off about a bank job he's planned. Dicky, in interrogation, actually gives evidence against Woolf, claiming that he's a crime boss behind the scenes, to Gene's anger and Sam's surprise. Sam intends to take the accusations seriously but Gene, in his love of his Superintendant, tells Woolf everything. Woolf laughs it off, but overnight Fingers disappears. Sam stakes out Woolf but he lets Gene know, leading to some... drastic measures. Fingers is found dead and the evidence stacks up against the superintendant, as doubts start to creep into Gene's mind. They investigate and find firm evidence, after which they confront a gun-toting, desperate Woolf.
     The subplot in this episode covered Tyler's black superintendant, Glenn, who, having died in 2006, appears in 1973 as a young officer. Sam tries to persuade him that he shouldn't play on his skin colour just to survive in the racist world of the time, but is then disappointed when he ends up caught up in Woolf''s corruption. This subplot easily provides the best moment of the episode, in the downright inspirational speech Sam gives to a worrying Glenn.
     This episode is really about idols. Both leads find their idols, their inspirations on the police force, in a disappointing state: Gene with his treasured Superintendant Woolf, and Sam with the now youthened Glenn. It's a fable about how you should never model your life directly off someone elses, how independance is important. Not bad for a small-time crime show, in my opinion.

Thanks.

Review: Lost 4.2: Confirmed Dead

Note: If you want to understand these reviews, I'd direct you to Lostpedia's Season Four portal. All of the images in my Lost reviews have been taken from Lostpedia, and the plot there goes into greater detail.

In the past, Miles talks to a ghost.

Season Four uses its second episode to lay down the ground rules concerning this year's quirks, making use of flashback to show us the new roster of characters coming our way, and how exactly they got involved in the first place. Meanwhile, events in the present turn into a somewhat farcical run-around as the survivors meet the freighter people and vice versa.
      Flashbacks show us scientist Daniel Faraday being upset at the discovery of a false wreckage for Oceanic 815, spiritualist Miles Straume getting rid of a ghost, anthropologist Charlotte Lewis finding a polar bear skull in Tunisia, pilot Frank Lapidus informing Oceanic that the pilot in the wreckage isn't the one that was on the plane, and Naomi (who died last episode) talking with mysterious Abbaddon about how and why she needs top assemble this motley crew. I can appreciate that this episode was caused by the Writers' Guild Strike, but it would have been so much better to display the essence of their character instead of (in Charlotte's case) simply using them for mixing up the plot. I think the most well done of these on a character level is Miles' segment, perfectly capturing his abilities and his personality well.

Charlotte "lands".

     Meanwhile, on the island, Daniel meets with the survivors, as well as Miles, who reveals that Naomi's request to "Tell my sister I love her" was in fact a warning signal. Jack and Kate explain what happened. Meanwhile, Locke's group get funky about their "destiny", and they run into Charlotte hanging upside down. Frank lands, send out a flare and both teams set out to move towards it; Charlotte is shot (not fatally, she's serupticiously wearing a bulletproof vest) and, after some coaxing, Miles reveals why they're really on the island. And it's not to save the survivors - it's to find a man. A man called Ben Linus, the leader of the island's natives who is currently being held by Locke's group. (Again, I direct you to Lostpedia.) The story doesn't waste any time in getting everything into position and blowing away any doubts about how quickly the rescues are going to happen. Unfortunately, this can often feel rushed and out of pace. Again, I can only blame the writer's strike for this.
     Confirmed Dead is an episode with some very interesting ideas and a vested intention of setting out the season's stall before throwing the viewer back into the flashforward world. It does suffer because of the Strike, but what we do have is quite impressive considering those conditions. Otherwise, it's a firm story that pushes the plot along with some enjoyable drama and mystery to chew on.

Thanks.

Review: Misfits 1.2

Nathan meets helper Ruth.

Second episode, and Misfits shows us just how gritty it can be in this controversial and absurd episode. Both its storylines revoved around the charismatic Nathan, and they surprisingly manage to touch on a vital message about our treatment of the elderly. It feels a bit of a shame that perhaps the already most vocal character is emphasised in lieu of the others, but I feel that it's important to add some more sentimental characteristics to his otherwise obnoxious nature.
     The group are made to help out at an OAP party, where Nathan is otherwise unoccupied. He sees and chats-up a pretty helper girl called Ruth, who after a drunken night in the community centre end up having sex, during which she transforms into an 82 year old woman. It turns out that Ruth was a pensioner affected by the storm, given a power that satisfied her desire to look young again. Nathan tries to avoid the now-rapidly aging Ruth until he goes round to apologise, and in a touching scene finds her dead in the armchair.While the dark absurdity of this plot in some areas made it feel a little crude, the lack of melodrama provided a refreshing change to the sentimental US drama that was prevalent at the time.

Nathan is "savaged" by Jeremy.

      The main subplot (although it was so woven in with the main that one wouldn't think it was one) surrounded Nathan's home-life, specifically his ailing mother and her boyfriend Jeremy, whom Nathan hates. The gang discover Nathan's step-dad naked on the estate, and later on in the night he appears again, acting like a dog. Nathan's mother has kicked him out of the house, and when he returns to warn his mother about her boyfriend's activities she already knows. He's also been affected by the storm, and is nightly given the mind of his favourite childhood Jack Russell. This subplot is as ridiculous as the main but doesn't hesitate to face the domestic issues apparent in today's youth.
     Elsewhere, a few strands of plot did develop, although not very significantly: Curtis found a mysterious, accusing letter on the inside of his locker, and Simon started chatting online to someone called "shygirl". I think the problem with a Character-A-Week format is that other characters too often get stuck on the sidelines, often having nothing to do before suddenly getting a single week of character development and then nothing after. Series One, in fact, doesn't have an episode that focusses on Kelly, which is a shame.
     As an episode of Misfits 1.2 was fairly standard, taking a mixture of the satirical, cynical and grotesque and creating an entertaining drama. As a Second Episode it was just as successful for the same reasons, showing how far the show was willing to stretch the boundaries, and how these stretches could be played realistically.

Thanks.

No. of Writing Staff: 2

One of my fellow online writers, and one of my peers, is "The Doctor", or Josh Stoddard. He, inspired by this website, created his own blog called "Josh's Blog." As I've recently mentioned, I'm looking for guest writers on Audenshaw Reviews to add some variety and specialisation to preceedings. I of course went to Josh first, as he has some blogging experience. For the next 8 weeks (plus a recap week), he will be reviewing the US Drama "No Ordinary Family" on Wednesdays. I welcome him to the team and hope you'll enjoy his writing midweek.

Thanks.